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Essential pedals.

H2ODog

H2ODog

Sep 30, 2003
477
0
Roseville, CA
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#1
So i'm a newbie on effects and bought a Pedaltrain Mini just to brake into it and i really don't have an urge to have a ton of effects so i though this would be fine. I have three pedals so far, compressor, tuner, VT bass. If your main interest was rock (mostly classic and some modern) and blues what would you say are the essential pedals you would have?
 
#2
That pretty much covers it, imo. When I think rock/blues I think of a mainly clean, unaffected sound.

When I was in a blues trio, I had pretty much the same, but I added an octave pedal (micro POG) to help fill out the sound some when the guitarist was going into extended solos. But even then, I only just barely had the low-octave noticeable. And again, that was because we were a trio and needed to fill out the sound some.

You just have to think about what will help out the overall sound of the band, where are the gaps that need to be filled.
 
#3
3toes said:
That pretty much covers it, imo. When I think rock/blues I think of a mainly clean, unaffected sound.

When I was in a blues trio, I had pretty much the same, but I added an octave pedal (micro POG) to help fill out the sound some when the guitarist was going into extended solos. But even then, I only just barely had the low-octave noticeable. And again, that was because we were a trio and needed to fill out the sound some.

You just have to think about what will help out the overall sound of the band, where are the gaps that need to be filled.
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your experience, i think you are right on the money. I was actually looking at the POG as one pedal i may be able to use also. Did you have any use for chorus or distortion?
 
#5
I find chorus to be essential for some songs and unnecessary for the other 95%, so I'd say you could do without one until a song requiring that sound comes up in a set list.

As for distortion, I personally love to lay it on thick. For you, an overdrive pedal would probably see heavy action.
 
#10
Do you use the VT for drive at all or just for warmth?

If you wanna do verb, go for the Holy Grial Plus or the Boss RV-3. They both have a blend, which I think would be more versatile for bass. You prooooooobably wouldn't need it for 'rock' though...

If you don't use the VT for drive, be careful of some of the overdrives out there. A regular tubescreamer or RAT 2 will suck the low end right out of your signal. Search around on this board for 'overdrive' (there's a zillion conversations about them) and peruse the post your pedalboard threads.
 
#12
rratajski said:
Do you use the VT for drive at all or just for warmth?

If you wanna do verb, go for the Holy Grial Plus or the Boss RV-3. They both have a blend, which I think would be more versatile for bass. You prooooooobably wouldn't need it for 'rock' though...

If you don't use the VT for drive, be careful of some of the overdrives out there. A regular tubescreamer or RAT 2 will suck the low end right out of your signal. Search around on this board for 'overdrive' (there's a zillion conversations about them) and peruse the post your pedalboard threads.
Click to expand...


Just use the VT for warmth, will do some research pedals you mentioned, thx.
 
#20
I have been using a tuner and compressor, but may go to just a tuner - if that. I may go back to using my tuner out again. To me, if I'm going to use (read as go through the hassle of setting up, using a board, whatever) one or two, I may as well use a bunch.

I have looked at and tried to find a use for effects, but for me, plain old bass seems to work best.

For you, I think what you have should work just fine.
 

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